The Grand Canyon turned 100 this week, or we should say the National Park turned 100, as the Grand Canyon is 70 million years old. To celebrate, a park ranger placed a typewriter at Plateau Point in the Grand Canyon and invited hikers to record their thoughts. After a six-mile hike down into the canyon, the typewriter sat waiting for them. Hikers left 76 messages: "Geologic pilgrimage," "parks are really powerful places," and "perfection," were some of the messages. And the single $5 typewriter from Goodwill found itself on media all over the country. Click here to read the NPR story.

Here's one you don't see every day. Delta Airlines passed out napkins for people to flirt with strangers on a plane. It says, "Because you're on a plane full of interesting people and hey...you never know," and then on the back is a place for your name and cell phone number so you can, well, start dating. One napkin says, "Write down your number and give it to your plane crush." Not everyone thought it was a good idea and called it "creepy" and social media had a field day. Coke and Delta both apologized for the napkins, but chances are good they knew what they were doing all along. But the napkins are gone.

When a Krispy Kreme doughnut truck caught fire in Kentucky, cops took the opportunity to poke a little fun at cops who eat doughnuts and posted photos of heartbroken cops lamenting the end of doughnuts as we know it. The posts went viral and police departments all over the country sent condolences. You know, we are sending backup, hope you like sprinkles. Then Krispy Kreme sensed a good marketing opportunity and sent reinforcements in the form of 20 dozen fresh doughnuts right to the police station. Happy days are here again for cops who love doughnuts.

Are you ready to give up your smartphone? What if someone paid you $100,000 for one year of no cell phone? Well, that’s what Vitaminwater is doing. It’s willing to pay one person $100k if they can go one full year with no cell phone. If they make it six months, they get $10,000. Vitaminwater is making a case for healthy living, as well as breaking a serious addiction that’s hurting family time and quality of life. But Nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone, is strong, affecting 40% of people. Are you willing to give up your smartphone for a year? You have until January 8, 2019 to enter the contest. Click here to read the “Scroll Free” contest rules.

Coors knows a good promo when they see it. When 101-year-old World War II veteran Andrew Slavonic was asked how he lived so long, he said cracking open a Coors Light every day at four o’clock. That, he said, is the secret to long life. When Coors heard about his secret, they flew out a refrigerator branded with Coors stocked full of Coors Light. And not only that, Andrew and his son are invited to Golden, Colorado, to tour the Coors Light facility. See you in the Rockies, said Coors! And there’s nothing like a secret-to-long-life story to get great press coverage all across the USA. So drink up, and live long!

Drive up to McDonald’s and unlock Burger King’s one-cent whopper via the Burger King app. (Image from adweek.com)

Tom Carroll’s Strategy of the Week

December 7, 2018

Burger King had a problem - sales were down and people weren't downloading its app. So it came up with a new promotion. The ONE CENT WHOPPER. But how you get it is the creative part. If you are within 600 feet of a McDonald's, you can download the BK app and qualify for a one cent Whopper at Burger King. You qualify and then get directions to the nearest Burger King. In this way Burger King gets McDonald's clients to come over to BK and download the app too for future promotions. About 50,000 people have taken advantage of the promo so far, twenty times more than any other promotion it's done. And the Burger King app has moved to #1 on Apple's App Store. It's been a huge success. The deal is valid near 14,000 McDonald's locations, but no word on how Mickey D's feels about it.

Nebraska had a problem. It was ranked 50 on the list of states people wanted to visit. Why? Flat, boring, lots of corn, no beaches, not a lot to do. So Nebraska decided to be disruptive. It came up with a new slogan, "NEBRASKA -- HONESTLY, IT'S NOT FOR EVERYONE." The ad campaign makes people laugh and take another look at the state to visit. It actually corrects stereotypes by showing that there actually is something to do there. Anyway, the whole country is now talking about the state's honest slogan, and to go there to experience people, farmers, and a Midwest way of life. The Nebraska campaign went viral overnight, Colbert talked about it, newsrooms were humming. And funny thing, tests show that people are more likely to go to Nebraska.

Banksy's “Girl With Balloon” shreds after its sale. Image from Sotheby's via news.sky.com.

Tom Carroll’s Strategy of the Week

October 11, 2018

"We got Banksy-ed," said Sotheby's auction house in Europe. At an auction in London on Friday, a painting by the England-based street artist known as Banksy sold for $1.3 million and then immediately self-destructed from a shredder built into the frame of the painting. Banksy himself put the shredder into the frame to destroy the painting if it ever went to auction, a statement on the commercialization of art. Now Banksy is even more famous, his art is totally cutting edge (pardon the pun), and amazingly, the shredded painting is expected to be worth even more!

Two Asian teenagers saw a blank wall at a McDonald's and realized that Mickey D's didn't have any Asians in their in-store marketing photos. So the kids made their own marketing poster and dressed up as McDonald's employees to hang the poster showing them in a McDonald's ad. The poster went unnoticed by the restaurant chain for several weeks. It looked just like their other posters. And when it was discovered, McDonald's was smart enough to go with it, and not get the kids in trouble. Then, Ellen DeGeneres heard about the prank and invited them on to her show where McDonald's paid both kids $25,000 for their marketing project and the story went viral. Now you can watch the whole story from the teenagers.

Coke's taking a hard look at bringing cannabis-infused drinks to the market. It was leaked this week that Coca-Cola is in talks with a Canadian cannabis company to infuse drinks with CBD, cannabidiol, which is considered a health additive, but without the ingredient that will get you stoned. Coke calls it "non-psychoactive CBD," which has anti-inflammatory uses and is legal in the US. But it’s still an extraction from either marijuana or hemp which both remain illegal at the federal level.

Coke is testing the waters. People want CBD, so Coca-Cola just might give it to them.

We always tell our clients the best PR is to run a good company, an ethical operation, and then your story is a lot easier to tell. Well, Wells Fargo didn’t take our advice and opened millions (yes, millions) of fake accounts for unsuspecting customers. The company has paid the price in a PR disaster. Now Wells Fargo has launched a new ad campaign called, “Re-established 2018.” And now there’s “Re-committing to You,” which has a huge billboard on I-25. Here’s what’s going on: Wells Fargo is re-branding itself, with Established 1852, re-established 2018. Or in other words, we’ve been around a long time, but we’re now an ethical company again. Are people buying it? Time will tell. Big American corporations do have staying power, but they don’t usually try to defraud most of their customers. That’s the Strategy of the Week.

In Pennsylvania this week, a report was published that over 1,000 children were the victims of priest sexual abuse over a 70-year period. The report hit like a bombshell and went national. As crisis managers, we manage crisis situations every week. We recommend telling the truth, active intervention, full accountability, real consequences, and a way forward. If you are wondering how to respond to a crisis honestly, listen to Bishop Lawrence Persico of Pennsylvania. He doesn't lie about it or excuse it or try to justify it. He says it like it is. He takes full responsibility for what happened. He calls it a tragedy. He calls for accountability. And he makes a case that the church will have to earn back the trust of the people. Have a listen.

For those of us who drive around Albuquerque every day, there is a vague recognition that we are a city of murals, but no one, until now, has made it official. Well, a new website has catalogued over 70 of the 500 or so murals in the Duke City. And when you take a look, you will see that ABQ has a remarkable collection of murals by some exceptionally talented artists. The website, MurosABQ.com, which shows the top murals in the city, has demonstrated that our city is a national gallery for murals. My favorites are Francis Rivera’s Desert Bloom at the South Broadway Cultural Center (seen above) and Nani Chacon’s Resilience at Washington Middle School. Take a look for your favorites.

Every year, there are a lot of drafts, the NFL draft, the NBA draft, the baseball draft, but there's never been a draft like this one. In Pittsburgh, they had a baby draft. Magee Women's Hospital held a draft for newborn babies for the Pittsburgh hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. They held a draft for "Best Hockey Smile" and "Fastest Feet." The babies were only a few hours old in some cases and the winners got knitted hockey skates and hats. It was all part of the "It's a Great Day for a New Baby," a PR campaign sponsored by the hospital and the hockey team. The hospital delivers the babies and the hockey team gets very young fans.

The latest Carroll Poll, conducted on June 15 and 16, asked likely voters (those who voted in the last two general elections) who they will vote for in the November 2018 General Election. The sample size for this poll was 1199 registered voters. It was balanced by Congressional District, party affiliation, gender, and age. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

The results below are cumulative responses from a statewide sample. However, the responses from the U.S. Congressional races were taken from respondents within their respective districts.

For pancake lovers, the world turned upside down this week. IHOP, formerly International House of Pancakes, changed its name to IHOB, with the “B” standing for burgers. Seems IHOP, sorry IHOB, wants everyone to know it has a great burger called Ultimate Steakburger. Why? Well, dining at IHOP is trending down, due to less family dining and healthier options. So IHOB wants to expand from pancakes to other meals to attract new customers. It turned out the whole thing was a publicity stunt, and a successful one, because the name is temporary and IHOP will return. Twitter went crazy, though, with Burger King saying it was going to change its name to Pancake King, and that kind of thing. But for IHOP what a good way to let people know about the Ultimate Steakburger.

Smirnoff. Jack Daniels. Coca-Cola??? Well, maybe. Coca-Cola has launched its first three alcohol drinks, calling them lemon flavored "alcopops," with alcohol content ranging from 3% to 8%. This could be big, very big, if Coke puts its brand and marketing juggernaut behind alcopops. Right now, the drinks are being rolled out only in Japan, but the world is waiting. This is the first alcoholic drink in the 125-year history of Coca-Cola. Alcopops boomed in Europe and the UK with Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Breezer, so Coke has been watching. These drinks are controversial because they are like alcoholic soft drinks and attract young people. But Coke's move is a toe in the water, to see if a gigantic new market might open up.

51.4% agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to allow states to legalize sports betting.

36.6% said the New Mexico state legislature should legalize sports betting, while 48.1% said it should not.

Only 16.4% said they would participate in sports betting if it was legalized.

We asked respondents what level of sports they believe should be included in legalized sports betting:

55.9% said betting on professional sports is acceptable, 44.1% said it’s not acceptable.

25.6% said that betting on college sports is acceptable, 74.4% said it’s not acceptable.

11.1% said that betting on high school sports is acceptable, 88.9% said it’s not acceptable.

32.1% believe that betting on local teams, such as the Lobos, should be allowed, 59% said it should not be allowed.

64.8% said that if it's legal, sports betting should take place in existing gaming facilities like casinos and racetracks.

25.4% said that if it's legal, sports betting should be allowed in privately run businesses, while 74.6% disagreed.

37.3% said that if it's legal, sports betting should allowed in state-run facilities, 62.7% disagreed.

31.9% have been to a New Mexico racetrack or casino in the last year, 68.1% have not.

If sports betting was legalized in New Mexico, only 22.1% would go to the racetracks or casinos more often. 78% either don’t gamble at all or wouldn’t alter their gaming habits because of legalized sports betting.